The kindness of strangers – part two

Two and a half years ago, I took the kids into the city to see the Myer Christmas windows.

They were excited. Well, my then three-year-old daughter was – at eight months old, my son didn’t really care about our destination. He was just happy to be out and about.

I dragged the kids with me to run some errands first, then walked through Royal Arcade toward Myer. We passed Koko Black, except we didn’t pass it at all. How can you walk past Koko Black? You can’t. You have to get a hot chocolate. You just have to.

We went in, and I ordered drinks. We went back out to sit at one of the tables in the Arcade. My son was getting antsy so I got him out of the pram and started to lift him towards my lap.

This coincided with the waiter bringing our drinks. Drinks that my son, who was not yet crawling and was generally content to sit on my lap, immediately lunged for. Drinks that ended up all over my son and my lap.

STEAMING HOT drinks that ended up all over my son and my lap.

Cue madness. There was screaming. There were bottles of water poured onto my son’s stomach, and all too quickly emptied. There was much waving and wringing of hands, much umming and aahing, a definitive “NO” from a member of staff when I asked if I could access their kitchen to get my son under cold, running water, and a subsequent “I don’t know” when I asked where the nearest public toilets were.

Then my son was whisked out of my arms by another member of staff. “The public toilets are this way!” she yelled back at me as she bolted around the corner, aiming for a set of stairs. I grabbed my daughter, ran after her, turned a few more corners and arrived to see her holding my son under the cold running water. I called 000 and asked for an ambulance while she attempted to soothe him.

THANK YOU NUMBER ONE (PART ONE): Thank you to the kind member of staff (manager?) at Koko Black who grabbed my son and got him under cold running water within minutes of him being burnt. I would not have known which way the bathrooms were, let alone gotten there so quickly with my daughter also in tow.

While we were in the bathroom, a door across the hallway opened and a cleaner appeared. (I was half in and half out of the bathroom, trying to keep a clear phone signal.) He saw what was going on, offered help, and then went back into the room. He emerged with some packages, unwrapped them, and handed me what appeared to be jumpers, suggesting I use them as blankets to carry my now naked son back up to the Arcade when the ambulance arrived.

THANK YOU NUMBER TWO: Thank you to the lovely cleaner who offered assistance. You looked like you wanted to do more, but what you did was incredibly thoughtful, and more than enough. Your refusal of my offer to pay for or return the jumpers – your uniform, I later realised – meant there was one less thing on my ‘must remember’ list when the ambulance arrived.

The ambulance arrived. Two paramedics came to look at my son. They asked questions. They said exactly the right things. “He’ll be okay, but we’ll take you to the hospital so they can advise a course of action.” “We’ll grab the pram – we’ve folded down a hundred of these things.” They asked how long he’d been under running water, then took over the burn management and guided us to the ambulance. “Why don’t you try feeding him? That might calm him down.” They presented my daughter with a teddy bear, and suggested she cuddle the teddy just like I was cuddling her brother.

THANK YOU NUMBER THREE (AND FOUR): Thank you to the paramedics who attended us that day. All in a day’s work, you might say, but your matter-of-fact manner was exactly what I needed. It was on the ambulance ride that you both calmed me enough to realise my little man was no longer screaming at the top of his lungs, and was going to be fine.

While in the ambulance, one of the paramedics handed me a bag. It had a Koko Black logo, and it contained four bottles of water, four bottles of juice, a packet of Koko Black chocolates and a post-it note with a hastily scrawled name and number.

THANK YOU NUMBER ONE (PART TWO): Thank you (again) to the kind staff member at Koko Black, who kept us nourished during the wait at the hospital. Another example of unprompted kindness and forethought.

Things went well at the hospital, or as well as can be expected when you arrive at a children’s hospital in an ambulance. There are doctors and nurses to thank, but I’m going to skip forward at this point. (I’m also going to skip past the point, hours later, when I finally got home and pulled off my jeans, only for it to feel like I was pulling off my own skin. Whoops. What they say about adrenaline is real. Cue belated hospital visit for me.)

I called the manager a few days later to thank her for her assistance on the day, and for the goodie bag. She said it was not a problem, and asked for my details to complete an incident report. I gave them to her, thinking nothing of it.

About a week later, a package arrived from Koko Black. It included a get well card signed by the staff, a selection of chocolates, three vouchers for Koko Black hot chocolates, and a copy of Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett.

Why the book? Somehow, amid all that chaos – or perhaps later in the day, while talking to those who had served us – the same member of staff who helped us on the day had discovered that we were on our way to view the Myer windows, and had guessed – correctly – that we never made it.

And that year, the windows were based on the book Gingerbread Friends.

THANK YOU NUMBER ONE (PART THREE): Thank you, oh thank you, Koko Black staff member. Again again. You sent us one of the most thoughtful presents we’ve ever received. The kids adore the book (present tense intentional – it’s still a favourite!) and it did help soften the blow for my daughter, who had been looking forward to seeing the windows.

The moral of the story: if your child is going to lunge at a tray of steaming hot drinks, make sure he does it somewhere within sight of a bathroom and with easy ambulance access.

Failing that, make sure you’re somewhere the staff will drop anything and everything to assist you, and show that they still care long after you’ve been an incredibly inconvenient customer deterrent outside their store.

(Oh, and rest assured our son is fine. By early 2014, you’d never have known anything had happened. The only physical proof that this ever happened is actually a small round mark on my leg. And, of course, the book.)

When have you benefited from the kindness of strangers? Or spent your afternoon in a pair of jeans that reeked of hot chocolate and tea?

Comments

It’s funny – the location of the toilets, the fact the ambulance had to come down the tram tracks to get anywhere near us, all this should have made it the worst place for it to happen, but the people made it okay. I think it’s important to share the good stories, too. The internet has enough anger and angst already.

Oh Em
What a frightening experience for you all but a lovely outcome. I think given the opportunity that most of us will show kindness but fear gets in the way.
You a beautiful person which is why you are showered in kindness
xoxo

What an experience Em, were his burns bad? And OUCHY for you. So nice of that establishment to be so caring. I used to freak out around hot stuff with my 3 little tots. They’re all a lot older and wiser now. xx

They were bad enough to blister, but didn’t take long to fully heal. I freak out too – even before then. I just didn’t predict my little boy choosing to lunge for a tray of drinks, let alone being capable of it.

Oh I love it when people (employees / businesses in particular) go above and beyond.

I ‘try’ to make it a habit to acknowledge good service. I think sometimes we’re quick to complain but not compliment.

The nicest response I had was following an email I’d sent to a Good Guys store acknowledging how wonderfully helpful someone was when I was a bit stressed and confused…. the manager emailed back to tell me that person had been awarded Employee of the Month and my email was going on their record.

I loved that they took the time to get back to me – and vowed I’d shop at the Mt Gravatt Good Guys in Brisbane as much as possible!

Oh, I love that too! I had a fantastic experience with an optometrist a few years back, and called the area manager to say so. Turned out they had someone filling in that day, and offered him a permanent role. I like that they let you know about it – they really are good guys!

Oh, this brought a tear to my eye – how much of a difference some kindness makes! I am so glad that the both of you were OK in the end! What amazing thoughtfulness just when you needed it.
I had assistance recently. It was a humiliating moment where I spewed out the front of a local (read: everyone knows everyone and you can’t just decide to never go back) pub. It was the most public spot in town on a Friday and I could do nothing to control it. I wasn’t drunk. Not even a little bit. Just had something related to my lady illness happen (long story). I thought for sure that the staff would hate me or assume I was wasted and kick me out. It was a Friday night out with the girls after all. But the tough looking bouncer gave me some of his own stash of breath mints and said nice things about the situation to me. The young guy who had to clean up my mess did it with a smile and a joke (I mean he probably doesn’t even have kids and he did it without even making a face!!!). Another lady (again a member of staff) ran to the bar to get me a pint of water before I could even recover myself. Nobody judged me and they all tried to make me feel better. Even though they’re not strangers, my friends made things easier. Cracking jokes and reassuring me that I wasn’t a total embarrassment. I was really upset (my health wrecking a rare night out was the final straw) at the time but when I thought about it later, I realised how kind people are and that was a pretty awesome thing to come out of a shit moment.

Holy shit. This is beautiful. It made me think of Noni Hazelhurt’s speech from the Logies the other day. Day in day out we are bombarded with bad new about the worst and darkest side of human nature. We desperately need positive stories to balance that, and to remind us that we are capable of so much kindness and compassion. That we are capable of so much good. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Noni’s speech was brilliant. I like that she made each of her points, punctuated it with a brief glance around the room, then moved on to the next. So powerful. (And I’d totally watch her good news channel. Especially if she was on it!)

Whoa! What a day for you all & isn’t it great to know that people will be there to support you in crisis and then follow up as an added bonus. So glad you were all OK and I hope oyu went back for those free hot chocolates xx

What a day…and what a contrast of responses from the same place..I am glad the ‘story ends well’ but my goodness what a time. I was having some pretty fast heart beats just reading! Glad all is well and you had some good news and good people to tell about too.

Yes, contrasts, but totally understandable from the youngster at the time. And in hindsight, the kitchen wouldn’t have been the safest place for my boy with all the steam and heat. Better that someone knew where the bathrooms were.